A favorite of radio kids, and many adults as well,
Dick Tracy on the radio was a long running serial
that was based on the very popular Dick Tracy of newspaper
comic strip fame. Dick Tracy was the star of movies
and several animation series as well, including a
1970's TV animation adaptation that was as true to
the original Chester Gould newspaper comic strip as
was the radio version. Dick Tracy had debuted in the
Detroit Mirror in 1931. Soon it hit New York and Chicago,
in the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune.
By 1937, the comic strip appeared in over 700 newspapers.
With a strong, built-in audience, Dick Tracy was perfect
serial.

First developed for radio in 1934 for the New England
region, the show was an immediate hit and was then
done on from 1935-37. Republic Pictures began the
Dick Tracy cliffhangers in the movies, which also
helped kids get excited about following his adventures
on radio. Fifteen minute serials were produced for
a full five nights a week in 1938-'39. In 1939, it
went to a half-hour, usually playing on Saturdays.
With WWII developing, Dick
Tracy was put on hold. After a few years, the show
again took to the air, and continued from 1943 through
'48, first developed as a fifteen minute serial, and
then expanding to a half hour in the mid 1940s. Dick
Tracy was featured in a series of novels and "Little
Big Books" at the time, as well as the Republic
cliffhangers and movies.

Chester Gould's newspaper strip featured singular
thugs and inventive plots all drawn in a flat, modern-looking
cartoon. The strip was heavy on scientific crime detection,
using the lab to sift through clues, and ultra-modern
inventive devices such as Dick Tracy's two-way wrist
radio (1946) that were wild then, and are very big
in commercials right now as pager/cell phones (almost
wristwatch size.)

On the radio serial, the "good guys" were
Dick Tracy, "protector of law and order,"
his sidekick Pat Patton, and Tracy's investigative
team Junior Tracy and Tess Trueheart. The strip and
show also starred bizarre villains, with such names
as The Blank, Little Face Finney, Pruneface, The Brow
and Shakey. The radio cases were always exciting,
with plenty of trouble, cliff hanging and narrow escapes. (Please note these
Dick Tracy recordings are of mixed quality with some
unfortunate hiss)